Hanger bar assembly



April 9, 1963 s. P. BELSINGER HANGER BAR ASSEMBLY Filed Dec. 28

INVENTOR.

SAMUEL P. BELSI NGER AT TORN EY 3,034,364 HANGER BAR ASSEMBLY Samuel P. Belsinger, Atlanta, Ga., assignor to lielsinger, Inc., Atlanta, 6a., a corporation of Georgia Filed Dec. 28, 1959, Ser. No. 862,134 Claims. (Cl. 211-124) This invention relates to hanger bars, and is more particularly concerned with a hanger bar assembly suitably for installation on a wardrobe type container or closure member.

This application is a continuation-in-part of my copending applications Serial No. 655,818, filed April 29, 1957, entitled Wardrobe, and Serial No. 750,236, filed July 22, 195 8, entitled Shipping Container.

In the past, many and various types of hanger bars employed with wardrobe boxes and the like to support articles of clothing in an upright position within the closure have been suggested. US. Patent No. 2,796,977 discloses one type of such a hanger bar. US. Patent No. 2,685,962 and U. S. Patent No. 2,807,354 disclose additional types of hanger bars. Generally speaking, the hanger bars of the prior art have either employed complicated mechanisms, such as nuts and bolts, for securing a hook retaining element against the hangers on a hanger bar or have relied upon the flat upper surface of the top closure of the container to retain the hangers in place on the bar. To my knowledge, heretofore, no hanger bar assembly has been developed which positively locks the hook portions of the hangers in place on the bar and yet permits the quick and easy disengagement of the hangers from the bar when the wardrobe container is opened.

Briefly, the present invention includes a hanger bar assembly comprising a hanger bar having hook members at its end portions and clamping members intermediate its end portions. Cooperating with the bar and being received between the clamping members is a hook retaining element which is either integrally formed with the top of the box or container or is a separate member capable of being biased downwardly when the container is closed. in the hanger bar of the present invention, the bar portion itself is spaced by the hook members a predetermined distance below the surface of the top closure of the box. Along the upper ends of the clamping member of the bar assembly are a plurality of bearing plates which act to support the top portion of the box and prevent that portion from being urged inwardly during shipment.

According, it is an object of the present invention to provide a hanger bar assembly which is inexpensive to manufacture, durable in structure and eificient in operation.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a hanger bar assembly which may be easily and quickly assembled into a locking position so as to retain the hooks of the hangers in place on the bar of the hanger bar assembly, the hanger bar assembly being easily disassembled so that the hooks of the hangers may be disengaged from the bar.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a hanger bar assembly which may be manufactured in the usual machine shop employing simple dies and welding equipment.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a hanger bar which may be manufactured entirely from sheet metal material.

Other and further objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein like characters of reference designate corresponding parts throughout the several views, and wherein:

3,984,804 Patented Apr. 9, 1963 7 FIG. 1.

PEG. 3 is a cross sectional view of the hanger bar shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the cooperating elements of the box being shown in broken lines therein, and a hanger being shown in broken lines.

FIG. 4 is a cross sectional view similar to FIG. 3 and showing a modified form of the hanger bar illustrated in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged, exploded, fragmentary perspective View of the hanger bar assembly of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary perspective view of a portion of the hanger bar of the present invention, and illustrating a modified form of the clamping element of the present invention.

Referring now in detail to the embodiments chosen for the purpose of illustrating the present invention, numeral 10 denotes the web portion of the channel member forming the bar of the present invention. The bar also includes a pair of spaced, opposed sides 11 and 12 which are essentially parallel to each other and normal to the web It), the sides 11 and 12 depending from the edges of web 10 and being affixed integrally to the web 10 so as to form an inverted U-shaped member in cross section. At each end of the bar there is a flaring portion 13 which curved outwardly and upwardly, the edge 14 of the flaring portion 13 merging with the bottom edges of the sides 11, and then diverging from each other as the flaring portion 13 extends upwardly and outwardly. The flaring portion 13 terminates above web 10, gradually merging with an inner bearing plate 15 which is essentially fiat and is adapted to act against the side wall 16 of the container or box. The inner bearing plate 15 extends well above the upper surface of web It) and is bent outwardly and downwardly to provide a bight or bend having a horizontal upper bearing plate 17 and a downwardly extending outer bearing plate 18. The hearing plate 18 terminates in a straight outer edge 19 lying essentially in the plane of the hanger bar. The bearing plate also is provided with vertical parallel sideedges 20 which merge with the parallel side edges 21 of the upper bearing plate 17; the side edges 21, in turn, merging with the parallel side edges 22 of the inner bearing plate 15 and the side edges 22 merging with the side edges 14 of the flaring portion 13.

If desired, the web portion it of the hanger bar of the present invention may be arched in cross section to provide a convexed upper surface and a conoaved lower surface, such as the web 10' of FIG. 4. The opposed parallel sides 11', 1-2 depend from the edges of the web 10' and are essentially identical to the sides 11 and 1-2. If the web is curved as illustrated in FIG. 4, it is preferable that the transverse arc of web ltl correspond to the curvature of the hook of a hanger, such as hanger 30.

.Thus it is seen that I have provided a hanger bar formed of an inverted channel member which has integrally connected thereto inverted U-shaped hooks on its ends, the hooks being adapted to extend over the upper edges of the side walls 16 of 'a container and position the bar in a parallel or horizontal position between the side walls 16 and within the container. By such an arrangement, the bar of my hanger bar is spaced downwardly from the top of the container when the top is closed thereover.

According to the present invention, intermediate the ends or hooks of the bar, there are provided a plurality of preferably evenly spaced opposed pairs of clamping elements. In the prefer-red form of the present invention, each clamping element is formed from a rectangular sheet of metal which is bent so as to provide a flat, rectangular base 41 which is anchored, say by spot welds 41 to one of the sides, such as side 11, 11, 13 or 12. The upper end of the base 41 is bent inwardly, at numeral 42 to provide a spacer plate 43 which extends along the upper surface of the web It) or toward the axis or center line thereof. Before reaching the central portion or axis of web 10, the spacer plate 14 is bent upwardly to provide an upstanding jaw member 44 which is spaced inwardly from the sides 11 and 12 of the bar by the spacer plate 43. The upper end of the jaw member 44 is then bent outwardly to provide a horizontal bearing plate 45 essentially in the same plane with the upper bearing plates 17 of the hooks of the hanger bar.

It is therefore seen that I have provided opposed pairs of clamping elements at spaced distances longitudinally along the hanger bar. These clamping elements are provided with jaw members 44 which extend upwardly from the upper surface of web 10 in essentially spaced parallel relationship. All of the jaw members 44 on one side of the axis of the web 16 lie in essentially the same plane, and all of the jaw members 44 on the opposite side of the center line of the web 10 lie in parallel to the aforesaid plane. Further, all of the bearing plates 45 lie in essentially a horizontal plane spaced from and parallel to the plane of web 10 or 16'. The space between the opposed pairs of jaw members 44 is about equal to twice the thickness of the fibre board from which the container is to be made. In some instances, as will be pointed out hereinafter, it may be found desirable to provide a space slightly less than twice the thickness of the fibre board between the opposed pairs of jaw members 44.

Referring now to FIG. 6, it will be observed that in some instances it will be found desirable to provide L- shaped clamping elements wherein the base 141 of each element lies in the same plane with the jaw members 144 thereof. The bearing plate 145 is formed at the upper end of each jaw member 144 by bending the jaw member 144 outwardly, as shown in FIG. 6.

When the hanger bar of the present invention is installed on a box, the hooks on the ends of the hanger bar are placed over the upper edges of the side walls 16 so that the upper bearing plate 17 of each hook rides against the upper edge of a side wall 16. In such a condition, the opposed parallel inner bearing plates ride against the inner surfaces of the side walls 16 while the outer bearing plates 18 ride against the outer surface of the side walls 16. When so positioned, the upper surfaces of the bearing plates 45 will be positioned so as to receive the inner surfaces of the flaps 52 of the box when the flaps close the upper opening of the box.

The hook retaining elements 53, which restrain the hooks of hangers 30 against inadvertent movement, may be formed as integral extensions of the flaps 52 so that a pair of such hook retaining elements 53- project between the jaw members 44 of all opposed pairs of clamping elements or brackets. A modified form of hook retaining element is illustrated in FIG. 5. In this figure, the hook retaining elements 153 include a pair of rectangular pieces of corrugated fibre board joined by an integral inner sheet having a reverse bent portion 154 at the upper edge thereof. It will be understood that the hook retaining elements 153 are originally formed from a single sheet of fibre board which is cut but not completely severed, so that by bending the board along the cut portion the hook retaining elements 153 may be formed while the uncut inner sheet retains the two portions together at bend 154.

The hook retaining elements 53 or 153 are essentially rectangular members which have a length approximately equal to the distance between the inner bearing plates 15 of the hanger bar. The hook retaining elements 53 or 153 have a width approximately equal to the height of the jaw members 44 or 144.

To install the hook retaining elements 53 or 153, they are urged downwardly between all opposed pairs of clamping elements. Thus, when the hook retaining elements 53 or 153 are urged between the opposed pairs of clamping elements, the corrugated fibre board from which these elements '53 or 153 are made will be deformed, inwardly, by jaw members 44 as the hook retaining elements 53 or 153 are urged downwardly. It will be noted that the flaring portions 13 of the hooks on the ends of the hanger bar are curved inwardly at a position slightly above the surface of web 11 and hence as the hook retaining elements 53 or 153 are urged downwardly the outer lower ends or corners, such as corner 155, will be deformed inwardly and hence the hooks will tend to hold frictionally the hook retaining elements 53 or 153 in place, themselves acting as clamping elements which clamp the hook retaining elements 53 or 153 between the flaring portions 13. Thus it is seen that the hook retaining elements 53 or 153 are clamped both longitudinally and transversely when placed on the hanger bar.

When the hook retaining elements 53 or 153 approach the web 10 or 10 of the bar, the hooks of hangers 30, which are carried on the bar and project above the upper surface of web 10 or 1-9, dig into and deform the lower edges of the hook retaining elements 53 or 153, each hook of each hanger 31 forming its own recess in the hook retaining elements 53 or 153. By such a procedure the hooks of the hangers 30 are accurately secured at the time of shipment in a predetermined location longitudinally of the bar. So long as the hook retaining elements 53 or 153 remain in place, the hooks of the hangers 36 will be retained in place on the bar and will not move inadvertently.

It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that many variations may be made in the embodiments chosen for the purpose of illustrating the present invention without departing from the scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims.

I claim:

l. A hanger bar for installation on the upper edges of the side Walls of a container to support hooks of hangers comprising a bar, said bar having a web and sides depending from the edges of said web, said sides being essentially parallel to each other, said web and said sides forming in cross section a U-shaped channel member, a pair of books on opposite ends of said bar, each of said ihooks including an inner bearing plate, an outer bearing plate essentially parallel to said inner bearing plate and an upper bearing plate joining the ends of said inner bearing plate and said outer bearing plate, and a plurality of opposed pairs of clamping elements extending outwardly from said web of said bar, each of said clamping elements including a base fixed to one of said sides, a jaw member extending from the surface of said web, a spacer member extending along the surface of said web and joining the ends of said jaw member and said base, a bearing plate on the end of said jaw member being about normal to said jaw member and lying in about the plane of the upper bearing plates of said books, the jaw members of each opposed pair of clamping members being in spaced parallel condition with respect to each other.

2. A hanger bar for installation on the upper edges of the side walls of a container to support hooks of hangers comprising a bar, said bar having a web and sides depending from the edges of said web, said sides being essentially parallel to each other, said web and said sides forming in cross section a U-shaped channel member, a pair of books on opposite ends of said bar, each of said hooks including an inner bearing plate, an outer bearing plate essentially parallel to said inner bearing plate and an upper bearing plate joining the ends of said inner bearing plate and said outer bearing plate, and a flaring portion joining said inner bearing plate to said bar, said flaring portion being arcuate between the web of said bar and said inner bearing plate, and a pair of spaced clamping elements extending outwardly from said web of said bar, the inner bearing plates of said hooks being essentially perpendicular to said web, said web being spaced downwardly from the plane of the upper bearing plates of said hooks sufiiciently that the corners of a rectangular hanger hook retaining element which is approximately the length of said web and which is received between said clamping elements engage the flaring portions of said hooks.

3. A hanger bar for installation on the upper edges of the side walls of a container to support hooks of hangers comprising a bar, said bar having a Web and sides depending from the edges of said web, said sides being essentially parallel to each other, said web and said sides forming in cross section a U-shaped channel member, a pair of hooks on opposite ends of said bar, each of said hooks including an inner bearing plate, an outer bearing plate essentially parallel to said inner bearing plate and an upper bearing plate joining the ends of said inner hearing plate and said outer bearing plate, and a flaring portion joining said inner bearing plate to said bar, said flaring portion being arcuate between the web of said bar and said inner bearing plate, and a plurality of opposed pairs of clamping elements extending outwardly from said web of said bar, each of said clamping elements including a base fixed to one of said sides, a jaw member extending from the surface of said Web, a spacer member extending along the surface of said Web and joining the ends of said jaw member and said base, a bearing plate on the end of said jaw member being about normal to said jaw member and lying in about the plane of the upper bearing plates of said hooks, the jaw members of each opposed pair of clamping members being in spaced parallel condition with respect to each other.

4. A hanger bar assembly for installation on the upper edges of the side walls of a container to support hooks of hangers comprising a bar, said bar having a web and sides depending from the edges of said web, said sides being essentially parallel to each other, said web and said sides forming in cross section a U-sha-ped channel member, a pair of hooks on opposite ends of said bar, each of said hooks including an inner bearing plate, an outer bearing plate essentially parallel to said inner bearing plate and an upper bearing plate joining the ends of said inner bearing plate and said outer bearing plate, and a flaring portion joining said inner bearing plate to said bar, said flaring portion being arcuate between the web of said bar and said inner bearing plate, a plurality of opposed pairs of clamping elements extending outwardly from said web of said bar, each of said clamping elements including a base fixed to one of said sides, a jaw member extending from the surface of said Web, a spacer member extending along the surface of said web and joining the ends of said jaw member and said base, a bearing plate on the end of said jaw member being about normal to said jaw member and lying in about the plane of the upper bearing plates or" said hooks, the jaw members of each opposed pair of clamping members being in spaced parallel condition with respect to each other, and means projecting between said opposed pairs of clamping elements for restraining the movement of said hooks of said hangers on said bar.

5. A hanger bar for installation on the upper edges of the side walls of a container to support hooks of hangers comprising a bar, said bar having a web and sides depending from the edges of said web, said sides being essentially parallel to each other, said web and said sides forming in cross section a U-shaped channel member, a pair of hooks on opposite ends of said bar, each of said hooks including an inner bearing plate, an outer bearing plate essentially parallel to said inner bearing plate and an upper bearing plate joining the ends of said inner bearing plate and said outer bearing plate, and a flaring portion joining said inner bearing plate to said bar, said flaring portion being arcuate between the web of said bar and said inner bearing plate, an opposed pair of clamping elements extending outwardly from said web of said bar so as to receive a rectangular deformable hook retaining element carried between said opposed pair of clamping elements and between the inner bearing plates of said pair of hooks with the corners of said element engaging the flaring portions of said hooks.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,357,309 Brown et a1. Sept. 5, 1944 2,561,053 Fallert July 17, 1951 2,752,082 Fish June 2 6, 1956 2,770,357 Sheard Nov. 13, 1956 2,796,977 Divine June 25, 1957 2,974,779 Belsinger Mar. 14, 1961 FOREIGN PATENTS 580,026 Great Britain Aug. 23, 1946 

2. A HANGER BAR FOR INSTALLATION ON THE UPPER EDGES OF THE SIDE WALLS OF A CONTAINER TO SUPPORT HOOKS OF HANGERS COMPRISING A BAR, SAID BAR HAVING A WEB AND SIDES DEPENDING FROM THE EDGES OF SAID WEB, SAID SIDES BEING ESSENTIALLY PARALLEL TO EACH OTHER, SAID WEB AND SAID SIDES FORMING IN CROSS SECTION A U-SHAPED CHANNEL MEMBER, A PAIR OF HOOKS ON OPPOSITE ENDS OF SAID BAR, EACH OF SAID HOOKS INCLUDING AN INNER BEARING PLATE, AN OUTER BEARING PLATE ESSENTIALLY PARALLEL TO SAID INNER BEARING PLATE AND AN UPPER BEARING PLATE JOINING THE ENDS OF SAID INNER BEARING PLATE AND SAID OUTER BEARING PLATE, AND A FLARING PORTION JOINING SAID INNER BEARING PLATE TO SAID BAR, SAID FLARING PORTION BEING ARCUATE BETWEEN THE WEB OF SAID BAR AND SAID INNER BEARING PLATE, AND A PAIR OF SPACED CLAMPING ELEMENTS EXTENDING OUTWARDLY FROM SAID WEB OF SAID BAR, THE INNER BEARING PLATES OF SAID HOOKS BEING ESSENTIALLY PERPENDICULAR TO SAID WEB, SAID WEB BEING SPACED DOWNWARDLY FROM THE PLANE OF THE UPPER BEARING PLATES OF SAID HOOKS SUFFICIENTLY THAT THE CORNERS OF A RECTANGULAR HANGER HOOK RETAINING ELEMENT WHICH IS APPROXIMATELY THE LENGTH OF SAID WEB AND WHICH IS RECEIVED BETWEEN SAID CLAMPING ELEMENTS ENGAGE THE FLARING PORTIONS OF SAID HOOKS. 